How to Avoid Work at Home Scams

You have children, but you still want to be able to contribute to the household income. You have decided to become a work-at-home-mom. Many other women have made this same decision. Unfortunately, that path is littered with scams and traps to take your time and money. With a little common sense and extra research, you can find legitimate work at home opportunities that can prove to be lucrative.

Your first step is to search the right places for your job opportunities. Don’t simply click on ads to find work. Try to find helpful groups of Wahms who have successful work at home jobs to guide your search. You can try searching on message boards or finding e-mail groups for ideas of where to start your work at home job search.

Many of these women can give you insight into which work at home opportunities are actually worth your time. You can also search forums. Their members are usually very forthcoming about their work-at-home experiences.

Keep in mind that there are no real ways to get rich quick jobs on the Internet or by working at home. The only people who get rich are those who are scamming others. Never believe an ad or an “employer” who claims that you will get rich instantly. Making money takes time and effort.

Warning Signs

There are also a few warning signs to look for when you are searching for Internet jobs. You should never have to pay for work or job lists. There are plenty of free listings available that can provide many work at home job opportunities. Companies that want to charge you for lists of jobs are just trying to get your money.

The lists are often filled with dead job leads, or lists of companies that want to charge you money. Many work at home scams will also require you to pay a start-up fee or cover the cost of “necessary” training. If the job is legitimate, you will not have to pay a start-up fee.

Another red flag is if the ad or website tells you to “act now.” You should always do research before joining a company and never feel pressured to make a decision right away. Many websites are set up with text that says that the offer will expire on today’s date. But if you revisit that website the next day, the ad says that the offer expires on that day.

If you are unsure about a company, research them through the Better Business Bureau website. The BBB has files on all businesses that have had complaints filed against them. You can see what other people have to say about a particular company and be steered away from scams.

There are some scams that have been around for years that should be avoided at all costs. These business scams have unfortunately been successful for the scammers, so they continue to take the money and time of hardworking Wahms. If you see an offer for any of the following types of jobs, run the other way:

Envelope Stuffing

Envelope stuffing is a common scam, although it is being seen less and less these days. These jobs are normally listed as mail service jobs, and then you are asked to pay for a start up kit. After you receive a start up kit, you are given instructions to place your own work at home ads. You basically just sell the start up kit to other people and become a scammer. There are several other types of products that are sold using this same method.

Craft Assembly

Craft assembly scams can take many forms. Typically, you receive a set of crafts to complete with instructions. You generally pay for the set and then are told you will be reimbursed for the kits and also paid for their assembly.

After working hard at assembling the kits and returning them, you will be told that your work is not up to their quality standards. You will be out the cost of the kits, and they will not sell your crafts anyway.

There are legitimate jobs out there for Wahms, but you have to do some research on the opportunities first. With a little time and careful analysis you can find a work at home job that will be rewarding and scam free. Forums are a good place to start. You will be able to see what has made money for other Wahms.

When dealing in the world at home world, you’re going to come across hundreds of scams. Some scams are easier to identify than other scams. A true work at home individual is always on the look for more work. A lesson learned is never keep your eggs in one basket.

By having several work at home jobs, if one falls through, there is always others to keep you going. Many people do work full time from home with one company, but many also are part time.

The best way to identify is a scam is to read the ad in it’s entirety. For example, one such ad that has been advertised read:

Are you desire for a line of job that you’re the manager?

You can endow with more time to your family and take pleasure in each day
without uncertainties.

All you need to do is to be an Email Processors!

By the wording, you can tell straight away that it’s not written by someone who speaks English as a first language. This appears to have been translated using an online translator. In today’s world, scammers are located all over the world. It used to be we had to worry about scammers locally, but the internet has opened up this multi-billion dollar industry.

Bank Scams

Sometimes the scam is obvious. Take for instance the dead relative in Nigeria, and they want to transfer somewhere around $12-30 million into your account, and then allow you to keep some of it in exchange for using your bank account.

While the average person recognizes this right away, there are some people who are desperate for money and don’t know any better, will fall for it. In the end, the scammer ends up with that individual’s banking information and cleans them out of anything that was in their account.

Another ad that you may see: Cash a check into your bank account, and then wire most of the money back to someone, keeping a small portion for yourself. The problem with this is that the check is fake, and by the time it comes back, that person is out a couple thousand dollars, and the scam artist is long gone with the cash that was wired to them.

Additionally, there have been several instances where innocent victims have been arrested for attempting to cash these checks! They don’t realize it’s a fake check, and when the police show up to arrest them, the story gets out. One recent incident that hit the news in 2010 was an older woman did this, and the police department was called by the bank manager while the woman was in the bank. They took the woman to jail and booked her on check fraud.

In order to identify a scam properly, you have to understand the english language properly. Know your grammer, and know the proper spellings of certain words. There, their, and they’re are commonly misspelled in these types of ads. Pay attention to the word “to”. What spelling are they using? Are they using the right one?

Read the ad to yourself, then read it out loud. If something doesn’t make sense, ask for a second opinion. While it’s common sense, you should never give your bank account information to any company or individual that you do not know via the internet, on the telephone, or in person! You never know if their intentions are good or not.

Resources

Take advantage of resources available from the world at home world. There are multiple Work from home forums such as Work Place Like home (www.workplacelikehome.com) where if you have a question about something, simply ask. The folks there will tell you if it’s a scam or not, and if they have had any experience with that particular company.

As a writer, I visit this forum, and I can almost instantly tell if an ad is a scam or not. In the past 8 years, I’ve only had one time where I did not recognize it right away. That’s thousands of scams that have been around over the years.

If you want to work from home, you have to be careful. By paying attention to the wording, you’re going to be able to pick apart the scams from the legit jobs. When all else fails, ask. As they teach you in school, no question is a dumb one. That is, unless you’re asking me to share my ice cream with you.